The Field Trip: A Long Bus Ride Home
by Randy Giles
Summary: A few Digimon characters (mainly Ken, Daisuke, and Koushiro) go on a terrible field trip that includes and 8 and a half hour bus ride... How WILL they survive?


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Nihao. I wrote most of this nonsensical crap documentary. ^^.; *points to pen name* I would be the Koushiro (who you may know as your resident twisted author, Anago-chan). Ken (better known as Trunks Ichijouji) wrote a few sentences. It was all his idea to write this down, though. So he deserves lots of the credit. Or blame, however you want to look at it. Daisuke didn't actually write, he just played with gummy dinos.  
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Disclaimer: Digimon doesn't belong to me. Or Ken or Daisuke. Never has, never will.  
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The Field Trip: A Long Bus Ride Home  
  
  
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Koushiro - On the way back  
  
  
We're still here on this bus, you know. We aren't home yet. And we're out of food. It's rather depressing, really. How did it start, you ask? How DID it start? It seems like weeks ago now since we started.  
  
"The buses will be here before 8:00. If you get here at 8:01, there's a very good chance that you'll miss that bus, and you won't get to go on the trip at all."  
  
That's what he told us the day before. The honors science teacher who could never be wrong in his own eyes. And yet there we stood. 8:32. Freezing. And the charter buses had yet to appear before us.   
  
Eventually, they did. Of course, you already knew that, seeing as we're on the bus now and all.  
  
They weren't the nicest charter buses we'd ever seen. At one point, a bunch of water poured down from the ceiling of the bus on Daisuke. There was also a moldy lollipop sticking out of an air vent. We knocked it off the stick and it rolled around on the floor. The stick is still in the vent, though.  
  
However, the turn-around seats, as Daisuke referred to them, were pretty cool. You know how usually all the seats in a bus face forward. Well, on this particular bus there happened to be two seats that were backwards, and faced the other two seats. Daisuke had been the first on the bus, and saved the seats for Ken and me.   
  
This seating arrangement worked out very well for playing card games, showing off the lipsticked, pink-haired, crown-wearing R.O.U.S. (Rodent of Unusual Size, if you didn't know) we did on a digital makeover program, and playing with gummy dinosaurs. (No, not gummy bears... these were definitely dinosaurs. I spotted a brachiosaurus.)  
  
  
Eventually we grew tired of all the above mentioned things. We started going in a circle and naming things alphabetically. First it was TV characters. "Ally McBeal... Bob... Chibi-usa..." Then foods, then movies. Daisuke bit the tail off a gummy dino and stuck it near the air vents.   
  
"Someday, some kid will be riding here, and say 'Hey, what the heck is that?' and pull it off, just like the lollipop," he said.  
  
Around that time, we realized that our bus wasn't moving, and hadn't been for a very long time.   
  
We were informed that the bus ahead of us had broken down, and after sitting there for an hour, they decided that it couldn't be fixed at that point in time. So everyone on that bus had to split up; half came onto our bus and the other half onto the bus in front of it. Bus #4 had already gone on ahead and left us.  
  
Our bus was very, very crowded now, and Daisuke was starting to get claustrophobic.  
  
"I've lost all feeling in my legs," said Ken. "Wait..." He paused, then hit his knee. "Yep, there we go."  
  
It was 1:30. We gave in and ate our lunches right there on the bus, hoping no teachers noticed. They didn't.  
  
  
Time went by, and the bus went along the road, slowly. Sloooowly.  
  
Everyone was getting quite impatient by that time.  
  
Then, we stopped moving again. Looking up, we saw endless traffic.   
  
"Hey... does that say it's eight and half miles away?" asked Daisuke, pointing to a far away green sign.  
  
Everyone else who could see that far agreed that it did.  
  
"So that means we should be there in an hour. Three tops."  
  
We all sighed. Suddenly....  
  
"My God!" yelled Daisuke. "The bus is MOVING!" Our eyes widened as we all looked out the window. Then we were all thrown forward (or backwards in the case of Ken, who was sitting in a turnaround seat) and it stopped again. So much for that.  
  
After a horribly long time (It was 2:31 by then. The shuttle was scheduled to launch at 2:41.), the bus stopped in a field where hundreds of people were standing. In a field. A field? We weren't REALLY stopping there, were we?  
  
"Oh, look!" said Mrs. Motomiya, who was a chaperone. "There's the space shuttle, do you see it?" She pointed to a small, almost indistinguishable shape far across the water.  
  
We finally got out of the bus, and were more than a little disappointed to learn that this field had become our destination.  
  
"I don't see any bleachers," Ken said, obviously as irritated as the rest of us. Now, let's review what that previously mentioned honors science teacher had told us.  
  
The first time he mentioned the trip, he said, "This will be a great experience for you! It'll take about two hours to get there, and then we'll eat our lunches. We'll be sitting right up in the bleachers and then we'll get to see the launch up close! Then we can go to all the exhibits! Make sure to bring money for souvenirs and refreshments!"  
  
Then yesterday, he'd said, "I hope you weren't deceived before, but I never said anything about going to the exhibits. We can't do that. Your $15 paid for the bus ride and admission to sit on the bleachers, that's all. But it'll still be a really great experience to see a launch up that close."  
  
Now we were standing on the grass a few miles across the water from the shuttle. We had to walk down a ways to get "a better view." Which wasn't any better at all. You still couldn't see that the object in the distance had any real shape.  
  
  
We waited.  
  
Someone had a radio on. "T minus 4 minutes..."  
  
Ken glanced at the people standing around. "Ah, geez!" He cringed and quickly averted his eyes from the seven year old girl that kept lifting up her shirt. "You'd swear that kid wants to be a future porn star or something..."  
  
We noticed some people who had taken the seats out of their cars and were sitting in them. That seemed odd.  
  
Then everyone around us began to count down.   
  
"9... 8... 7... 6..."  
  
All eyes were focused on the shape across the water.  
  
"2... 1!"  
  
We saw the flames. We heard the rumble. We observed that the trail of smoke left behind had an uncanny resemblance to Reddi Whip. As the shuttle disappeared up into the blue sky, we were sure of two things:   
  
1.) The whole five-and-a-half hour bus ride hadn't been worth it at all, and  
2.) This was the worst field trip we'd ever been on.  
  
We headed back to the buses.  
  
Where we sat for the next half hour or so without actually going anywhere. We were told we were waiting for the traffic to go by. There was also a rumor going around that we'd get to stop at the visitors' center on the way out.   
  
"Makes sense," said Ken. "I'm a visitor. I should stop at the visitors' center."  
  
Yes, it DID make sense. But did we stop at the visitors' center? Of course not.   
  
  
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Koushiro - Note that I'm now writing as everything happens. That's why this is in present tense now. Sorry if that's confusing.  
  
  
The cramped feeling in our legs has come back, and we've only been actually riding back on the bus for about four minutes. Daisuke's gummy-dino tail is still sticking to the wall. Wait, now it's not. Ken just flicked it at Daisuke. Hmm. It's back now. Daisuke still hasn't won a single game of BS. Then again, neither have I.   
  
Yamato's sitting in the aisle of the bus and loudly "singing" some song by Eve 6. Note the quotations around the word "singing." God save us. Daisuke's CD is playing, and he and Ken are both listening to it. And I'm typing on my beautiful pineapple laptop, which I don't imagine surprises anyone. Those broken headphones are frightening. Daisuke is trying to get something to happen on the boring bus. It's not working. Now they're listening to Pure Disco. Or they WILL be once Daisuke finds it. There we go.  
  
"I will always remember this trip," says Daisuke. "And how much it royally sucked."  
  
Sadly, I'd have to say that pretty much sums it up.  
  
Daisuke screams at someone that's messing with Hikari's Game Boy.   
  
Crossing the bridge. This is as far as we've gotten so far? Going to be another long ride.  
  
Yamato says to some guy, "You know your knee brace is the same color as your hat? If you had an orange stripe on it, you could put it on your head and people would think it was your hat."  
  
Ken's playing Hikari's Game Boy now, and Daisuke's still listening to his music. He says he's grumpy and mean (there's something new) and he wants to go home. Then he tells Ken he wants more Gummy Dinos. Hikari's Game Boy batteries just went dead.   
  
Woohoo, we ALL get more Gummy Dinos! Okay, we'll take a break here and have Ken write for a second.  
  
  
  
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Ken  
  
  
For the seventh time, he touched the gummi dino. Daisuke just won't stop touching that stupid gummi. Oh no... he's now petting it. HE'S PETTING THE BITTEN-IN-HALF-REATTACHED-BACK-ON-AND-THEN-STUCK-INTO-THE-BUS-AIR-SOCKETS GUMMI. I can't stand it anymore. And to top that, I'm losing feeling in my leg again.   
  
  
  
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Koushiro  
  
  
I'm so tired. Up to this point, I've been using Daisuke as an arm rest. But now that I'm typing again, well, I can't. The last of the gummy-dinos. Daisuke put a new sticky tail-of-gummy-dinosaur in the air vent thing on the bus. He looks worried and informs us that it's "rapidly unsticking." He looks at the computer screen to see that I just typed that, and says, "Well, it IS rapidly unsticking."   
  
And now he's tapping on it again, to help it regain its sticky properties. He stops and says he's never going to touch it again. I don't think anyone really believes him. He finds it far too tempting. It's taking all the willpower he has to keep from petting it. I'm going to test him.  
  
"Look at it," I tell him. "Touch it. You know you want to."  
  
"No," he says. "I'm not going to think about it."  
  
"It's there for you to touch."  
  
"No, it's there because I put it there." He thinks he has control over it.  
  
"You long to feel it." I'm not giving up here. "Feel its smooth and roughening textures..."  
  
"NO!"  
  
But even then, his hand slides down from the window.  
  
Bam, he's petting it again. This is a very disturbing addiction.  
  
He just got some gummy bears, and now he puts a decapitated red one on top of the gummy-dino foot. He puts a decapitated yellow one on top of the red, then puts it back in his mouth when it doesn't stick, which doesn't seem to be very sanitary. Now he adds a white one. He seems proud of his little gummy-tower there, but he thinks it's a little off-balance. I'll let him fix it himself. He fixes it, and adds a darker yellow one.  
  
He tells me that the key to a good gummy tower is good foundation. "You've got to trust that one on the bottom," he says solemnly, "or it's all over."  
  
Ken's running out of gummy bears. Daisuke still has one left.  
  
"A BUTT!" he says in a flash of brilliant inspiration. "I'll put a gummy bear butt on the top of the tower!" He does this, and his tower leans over. He screams, and tries to fix it again. He can't accept the fact that it's not going to stay up, especially since it IS in an air vent.  
  
Hey, we've almost caught up to another of our charter buses.  
  
Oh geez, Daisuke's eating pieces of his tower. And it's still not staying up.   
  
Anyway...  
  
I'm not going to write about what happened to the original gummy dino tail at the moment, in case someone finds it and tips that person off. They're already suspicious.  
  
I hear Aaron Carter singing "Bounce." Oy vey.  
  
  
Eww... Daisuke put his gummy-tower-turned-multi-colored-gummy-ball on the keyboard. And now he's trying to put it in someone's ear. He throws it back to Daisuke and-- Augghh, it touched me!  
  
He just tried to put it in Ken's ear too.  
  
Another bus pulls up beside us and everyone waves at it. Wow, you know there's a movie on and no one noticed? It's probably not good anyway though. Nothing on this field trip is.  
  
I slap Daisuke before he can put gummy bear body parts on the keys again.   
  
Now he's got ice, and he's soaking gummy bears and throwing them at everyone..   
  
  
But that's far more than enough on the gummy bear subject.  
  
  
  
Or not. I put one down Daisuke's shirt, and then he put it in my hair. Then he took it back. He's getting ready to throw it at one of the popular girls in the back.  
Whoo, there we go! You should hear them shrieking back there!  
  
  
I just scrolled up and, well, I can't believe all that was about gummy bears and Daisuke's twisted pleasure with them.  
  
This bus is so hot. And it's 5:22. It took us five and a half hours to get to the place the first time, and this time it's around rush hour. That can't be a good thing. At least no buses have broken down this time. As far as we know, that is.  
  
Well, I haven't written anything really interesting yet, but now the battery's low and I'm sick of writing. So, while I may do a little more of this later, I'll probably wait until I get home to finish it.  
  
  
  
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Koushiro - Who is now at home...  
  
  
  
...Thank God.   
  
You're probably not wondering about where the original gummy dino tail went. However, you're going to be told anyway. See, this one guy's always incredibly rude and all, and we had to sit with him on the way up.   
  
Then on the way back, he fell asleep. After debating for a minute, Ken pulled the slobbery gummy tail off the vent and tried to throw it at him. It missed, though. Then Yamato gave Ken some cinnamon Altoids. He ate one and threw the other at the guy, who then woke up and was far from happy. He was shouting at everyone, trying to figure out who it was.  
  
"IT CAME FROM OVER THERE! SO IT HAD TO BE KEN! YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT! YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WITH AN ALTOID OVER THERE!"  
  
Ken raised an eyebrow and continued typing. (He had the laptop at this point.) "Which is in my mouth, not on you." He stuck out his tongue to prove it.   
  
Daisuke and I couldn't help laughing, so I quickly pulled a funny fanfic out of my backpack and made it look like we were laughing at that instead.  
  
Eventually the guy gave up on finding the elusive Altoid-thrower.  
  
We couldn't let ourselves fall asleep. If you fall asleep on one of those buses, you're sure to wake up with gummy bears in your ears or chips up your nose.  
  
And you've read about what happened after that with Daisuke and the gummy bears. After that, it all got foggy. We were leaning on each other, trying to stay awake. We put my CD player on shuffle and tried to guess what song was next. We did that the rest of the way back to school.  
  
  
I never want to ride a bus again.  
  
  
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The story you've just read is true. The names have been changed in case the guy who was hit by an Altoid finds this by some freak chance. I know it didn't make sense because of the tense changes and the non-sequential-ness. Sorry about that. That's what we get for writing on a bus.  
  
Review if you get the urge. *shrugs* ^^.;  
  
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